LG asks government reasons for removing DCW chief
New Delhi, Jan 30 (IANS) Delhi Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung Thursday sent a proposal for removal of Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chairperson Barkha Singh back to the state government seeking reasons for the move.
"The LG has sought clarifications on the removal of the DCW chairperson. He asked the reason for the government reconstituting the panel," said a senior official in the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government.
The government is preparing answers to the Lt. Governor's queries and would send it to him soon, the official added.
Barkha Singh, who had also met Jung during the day, has been engaged in a war of words with the Aam Aadmi Party government, after it Wednesday proposed Hindi writer Maitreyi Pushpa's name as the new panel chief.
After meeting Jung, she said: "It is nowhere written in the rule book that a political person cannot occupy this post."
"One and a half years of my tenure is left. The Lt. Governor will decide now," she said.
Soon after the government announced Pushpa's name as the new DCW chief, Barkha Singh accused the Aam Aadmi Party government of "harassing" her.
She said the government took the step after she summoned Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti to explain his controversial campaign against an alleged prostitution racket.
Barkha Singh, who lost the Delhi assembly election as a Congress candidate, Wednesday said there was no need for her to quit even though the Congress government which appointed her has bowed out.
A Delhi government official said Pushpa's name was sent to the Lt. Governor so that the DCW is headed by a non-political, eminent personality.